Chamber Concerto for Saxophone and Six Players: Chamber Ensemble: Score

SKU: PR.114414480

ISBN 9781598063264. UPC: 680160597932. 9x12 inches. Key: Bb major. Transcribed by Carter Pann.

A unique collection of elegant transcriptions of Bach’s keyboard and instrumental gems scored for 10 woodwinds, with flexible scoring and ossia parts – ideal for schools and “pull-out” groups on wind ensemble concerts.
The music of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is a gift. Nearly every piece that poured out of this man is as inspired and perfected as the next. His body of work has cut a deep incision in the recorded history of music and set a benchmark to which all the contrapuntal masters who followed have aspired to meet.The transcriptions found within this volume add to the thousands upon thousands of versions of his music already re-worked for different groups and media. The music here does not, however, embellish Bach’s own scores (save but for a couple of instances in which it was felt necessary to add an inner voice to serve the expansive range of the ten woodwinds). The selections are ordered (loosely) to assume a smooth, inclined trajectory of both difficulty and musical breadth. The first piece is a small and simpleminuet, the last is a long interior movement of one of the most beloved and advanced violin concertos in the whole repertoire.As a keyboard player I grew up learning and falling in love with much of Bach’s music at the piano. For this very reason, much of this volume consists of the composer’s keyboard works. One cannot, however, deny many of the most cherished works from Bach’s oeuvre when compiling a set of transcriptions, and many of those “hits” are included here as well.Departing from a traditional harmoniemusik ensemble, I have replaced the horns here with saxophones. There are two reasons: 1) the nature of much of this music requires instruments with an ease of agility not executable so readily on the horn; and 2) the opportunity for saxophone players to be included in such an ensemble was very attractive, pedagogically.I hope you enjoy these gems from such a great genius.

SKU: PR.41641301L

UPC: 680160619795.

Under the Sun's Gaze as a title for a musical composition conjures up many possibilities. It is, in fact, an imagined line from an unwritten poem, invented with the idea of capturing something of the visual aura the sounds and energy of this work invoke in its composer' mind. An omnipotent presence in all of nature, a source of life yet also capable of its destruction, the sun affects the light and dark in our physical existence as it defines the daily and seasonal life. The music of this work, in three interlocking parts, takes turns being exuberant, caressing, scorching, receding, hazy, lazy, blazing, dissolving into darkness, blinding in its intensity. Subtitled Concerto da Camera III, this work is written for what has become known as the standard Pierrot instrumentation of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano plus percussion. The difference here is that the winds are doubled - the two flutists alternating with piccolo and alto flute and both clarinetists also doubling on bass clarinets. The ninth member of the ensemble, a soprano saxophone, appears well into the piece, its lyrical, plaintively expressive quality dominating the musical terrain for a while. While occasionally joining the others for some tutti outbursts, it maintains its position as something of a guest throughout. Of the various thematic ideas that populate this work, a six-note descending line played by the clarinet appearing right at the work's opening then arching back up reveals itself, as the music unfolds, to be the principal melodic building block of Under the Sun's Gaze. Its various transformations include the plaintive soprano saxophone melody appearing in the middle section. Just under 20 minutes in length, the work in its totality can be heard as being in a loose arch form, its ending receding into a distant darkening horizon which carries in it the seed of the new dawn that lies beyond. Under the Sun's Gaze was commissioned by the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress for the San Francisco Contemporary Players, David Milnes, conductor.